Good day. It's Friday, August the 22nd, 2025. We're glad you've joined us for Denison

Forum's Daily Article podcast. I'm Chris Elkins, narrating today's daily article written by

cultural theologian, Dr. Jim Denison. Dr. James Dobson passed away yesterday morning at the age of 89.

Best known as founder of the Media Ministry, Focus on the Family.

He was an advisor to five U.S. presidents and one of the best-known Christian leaders of his time.

Many are offering profiles of his life and tributes to his legacy today.

However, there is a less noted dimension of Dr. Dobson's story that relates to us all, no matter

what his direct influence on our lives and families may have been.

Born in 1936 in Shreveport, Louisiana, James Clayton, Dobson, Jr. was the son, grandson, and great-grandson of Church of the Nazarene ministers.

His parents were traveling evangelists, but he studied academic psychology and came to believe that he was called to become a Christian counselor or perhaps a Christian psychologist.

He attended Pasadena College, now Point Loma Nazarene University, then began working at the

Children's Hospital of Los Angeles.

In 1967, he received his doctorate in psychology from USC, the University of Southern California.

That same year, Dr. Dobson became an associate clinical

professor of pediatrics at the USC School of Medicine, where he served for 14 years. After his

teaching career at USC, he spent 17 years on the staff of the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles

in the Division of Child Development

and Medical Genetics. In response to the disintegration of moral principles he witnessed in his

clinical practice, he published his bestseller, Dare to Discipline, in 1970. In 1977,

he founded Focus on the Family, leading the organization to become a multimedia empire by the mid-1990s, with 10 radio programs, 11 magazines, numerous videos, basketball camps, and resources sent to thousands of churches each week.

In 1995, the organization's budget was more than $100 million annually.

At its peak, Dr. Dobson's daily radio program was carried by more than 4,000 stations across

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